Opinion
Robert Stuhlman
Elected AfD district administrator should go through “democracy check”: What a rarely stupid idea
Robert Stuhlmann won the district election in Sonneberg, Thuringia, for the AfD
© Ferdinand Merzbach / AFP
The AfD in Thuringia wins its first public office through District Administrator Robert Stuhlmann. Then comes the SPD-led Ministry of the Interior and now – after the election – wants to subject him to a “democracy check”. The AfD itself could not have come up with a better idea.
Robert Stuhlmann is not a likeable guy. He rails against refugees who have to be “financed through” and fantasizes that “state-sponsored” illegal immigration threatens “the right to a home for our children and grandchildren.” He uses terms like “old parties” and “global elite”, he fuels conspiracies of an allegedly planned “global dictatorship”. He throws buzzwords around without substantiating his allegations.
A majority of citizens in the small Thuringian district of Sonneberg nevertheless elected him their new district administrator. In a democratic election. You have to accept that.
But not everyone in Thuringia really wants to accept that.
On Tuesday it became known that the Thuringian state administration office is to carry out a “democracy check” at Stuhlmann. It should be checked whether he “guarantees that he will always stand up for the free democratic basic order within the meaning of the Basic Law and the state constitution”. It is a requirement in the local election law of the Free State. In Stuhlmann’s case, there were doubts because the Thuringian AfD was classified as “safe right-wing extremist” by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It is a case-by-case review, the result is completely open, said Katharina Schenk on Tuesday.
Schenk is Secretary of the Interior in the Ministry of the Interior of the red-red-green state government – and SPD politician. And here the problems begin. An Interior Ministry led by the Chancellor’s Party is setting out to retrospectively deny the AfD district administrator a democratic election. The SPD that is currently being overtaken by the AfD in nationwide polls.
Retrospectively examining Robert Stuhlmann is politically stupid
The process itself sounds understandable, whether the classification of the protection of the constitution. But that should have been done before the election, no, it should have been. There was probably a lack of time and resources for this. Because Stuhlmann does not belong to any banned party, his application was not objectionable, it is said.
Apart from procedural questions: Politically, the whole thing is not only unwise, it is downright stupid and grossly negligent. It serves the AfD’s narrative better than they could have imagined themselves. You can already hear the angry AfD heads rumbling: “Those up there want to prevent us, and if you vote for us, they’ll find something to circumvent your will.”
It is grist to the well-known mill and exactly the wrong answer to the success of the AfD. If you want to have that documented, you only have to look to America. Trump’s drivel about the “witch hunt” on him has always been the core of his campaign. “Look, I’m fighting for you against the evil powers that want to prevent me.” Feeding this narrative is wrong in the US, and wrong here.
Who wants the AfD to be seen for what it is: a party with no solutions of its own, living off stirring up fears and picking on others without ever having explained conclusively how they would do it better, how she would solve big problems. If you want to reveal that, and for that you’ll soon have to throw five marks into the pig phrase, you have to deal with the content.
Because someone who talks like Stuhlmann is obviously capable of winning a majority in parts of Germany. That’s the chilling realization of the election. And that would not be reversed if the AfD district administrator were subsequently declared unfit.
The AfD district administrator will have limited influence
There is at least no irrefutable evidence as to whether Stuhlmann is an enemy of the basic democratic and liberal order. If the procedure is actually carried out, the outcome is open.
What is certain, however, is that his influence in the district office of Sonneberg is very limited. From there, Stuhlmann will not overthrow the free democratic basic order, even if he intends to do so – but then he would be a case for independent law enforcement agencies, not for an SPD-led interior ministry.